Digging Out

by Katherine Leiner

Years after fleeing to the U.S. to escape the tragedy in her small Welsh town that had nearly cost her life and destroyed her family, Alys Davies rebuilds her life, marries, and finds success as a poet, until a new tragedy forces her to confront the terrors of the past by returning to Wales and facing her memories of loss and love. A first novel. Original.

Genres: Fiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2004

About the author

Katherine Leiner has been writing since she was a child. She has published many award-winning books for children and young adults and, more recently, her first novel for adults, Digging Out, published by Penguin. She is working on another novel due out in 2012. "

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts off as 4 stars. Ends up a 3. This was a beautifully narrated tale about life in Wales and the tip accident that took so many lives. It affects Alys throughout the rest of her life as she comes to terms with her continued losses and grief.
Nicely done but the ending was predictable and too quickly wrapped up.

[Nelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Name should be Katherine, not Catherine.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still in two minds about this book. The story unfolds at a gentle pace and doesn't tax the reader, although I then frequently found my mind wandering and having to go back and reread some passages.
I originate from the area described and was at school with Aberfan survivors and the siblings of victims and have known some of the bereaved parents as friends, so I wanted to see if this would be a respectful tribute to the sufferers and the lost or a shameless use of the disaster to just create a foundation of pain for the main character, Alys. I think it just makes the former.
The experience of suffering as potentially emotionally crippling is brought out reasonably well in Alys and does show how running and hiding from our pain can also damage those who love us.
However I found some points really irritating!
Aberfan is NOT in the Rhondda valley - one character is described as having "the best ankles in the Rhondda valley.
Jersey cattle are NOT black and white but caramel - giving rise to " gold top milk". The B/W British cattle are generally Friesian or Holstein.
A girl growing up in Aberfan and a lifelong resident male would NOT call the third season of the year, "Fall" but Autumn.
All of these mistakes just speak of lazy writing and inadequate research.
The author has also moved the date of the disaster back by six years just to fit in with Alys' timeline and bring her into present day without being too old perhaps. As so many other details are accurate - street and school name for example - I don't think poetic licence is a good enough reason to change it and I did find that disrespectful.
On the whole, it wasn't a bad story: but it could have been an awful lot better

[Taylor Bartlett · Rating 2 out of 5]

If this book had not been so well written, it would have been a one star rating.

When one chooses to use a disaster as the setting and the storyline for one's book, I think that it is important to treat said disaster in a respectful manner, especially a disaster that killed so many innocent people, most of them children. That was my biggest issue with this book. The terrible tragedy that took place in Aberfan effected so many people and it was important to deal with the subject respectfully. The crown managed it very well indeed.
This book did not do this for me. It seemed as if the author used the Aberfan tragedy as a means to write a dramatic story and not as a respectful fictional tribute to such a terrible event.
The fact that the author got the date wrong was the first red flag for me. It takes only a google search to get to know that the Aberfan tragedy took place on the twenty first of October in 1966. If one is going to write about a historical event, even more so when that event is a tragic one, then one has the responsibility to do it right. This book could have been such a brilliant one if the Aberfan disaster had been handled and discussed correctly, rather than as a means to a dramatic storyline.
Saying that though, it was a well written book on the whole and the characters did feel real to me. A one point five star read overall.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

very good story but it drops off at the end. A couple more chapters to give the story the finish it needed would have made it a great book.

[Kathy Gilliland · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sad story of how someone goes on with her life after a horrible tragedy happens when she’s young. I can’t imagine how I would move forward.

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have given this book five stars if not for some bad language (most of the characters are british), and some sexual references. However the writing style is like poetry in story form and very compelling. The characters became very real to me and the layers of emotion are deep and raw.

The main character Alys is the voice in the book and she deals with some huge tragedies in her life. She is one of the few survivors of a land slide that destroys the school in her village and basically tears her family apart. Later in life her husband dies at a young age, and afterwards Alys discovers he was leading a double life. She goes back home to Wales to deal with the past that she had run away from and to heal.

I was very compelled by the story, I couldn't put it down.
I was disappointed when it ended, I felt like the author left too much up to the readers imagination.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in a Welsh mining village this is the story of a woman who survived a landslide as a child. Many children died in the landslide as it buried a school. It's the story of how the main character, those in her family, and those in the community deal with the loss over a period of 30 years. Very good book.

[Bee Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I lived where part of this book was written. The author was actually a neighbor of mine. I felt that this book was very touching and heartfelt, and definitely recommend it.

[Adrienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an entertaining story but for me it was a little shallow. Three stars because the narrative kept me riveted, but no more because the substance was kinda blah.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Made me cry! Many times actually unusal for a book.

[Christie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me awhile to get into this book. The author did a great job conveying the grief the main character felt. So much so that it almost seemed too sad to read.

[Wilmina Rundle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good story about overcoming adversities, but her problems do seem unrelenting after awhile.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was good. It was an interesting story, that I did not realize was based on a true incident.

[Carol]

Good enough to make me get online to learn more about the events on which the story was based.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not particularly notable. Okay summer reading. I need an inspiring novel. This wasn't particularly it, but was okay.

[Heather B Blair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Language

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had its moments where I couldn't put it down and then moments where I am done this book is boring. Overall I liked the book.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. Good character development.